Review: Bully Boy Distillers Hub Punch

Bully Boy is a Boston-based craft distiller that makes vodka, rum, and white whiskey… and which also makes this oddity: The Hub Punch. What’s Hub Punch? Bully Boy explains:

Inspired by the original Hub Punch recipe popular in the late 1800’s, Bully Boy Hub Punch, our barrel aged rum infused with fruits and botanicals, revives a historic Boston tradition that was a casualty of Prohibition. Originally concocted at the now defunct Hub Hotel, Bostonians typically enjoyed Hub Punch mixed with soda water, ginger ale, or lemonade. Bully Boy consulted a variety of historical accounts of Hub Punch to craft a spirit that pays homage to the traditional recipe and spirit of the pre-prohibition era Boston. Bully Boy Hub Punch is fruit forward with the botanicals providing tea-like undertones ideal for mixing with both dry and sweet mixing agents.

So, it’s essentially a high-proof cocktail in a bottle, rum flavored with citrus, fruit, and botanicals. Think of it as a rum-based sangria and you’re pretty close.

The Hub Punch is a deep garnet spirit, and taken neat it’s pretty overwhelming. Intense fruit overtones push it into the realm of cough syrup, extremely cloying and medicinal, with intense licorice overtones. Ice alone helps temper the spirit, as does some plain water (other mixer ideas are outlined above). Cooling things down helps to bring out The Hub Punch’s more interesting nuances, including chocolate notes, cinnamon, raisin, and plenty of that licorice note. There’s still a whole lot of sweetness here, with the fruit and root beer notes ultimately growing on you the way a bottomless pitcher of sangria does.